University has YouTube and Facebook sites
Crimson White – March 26
Last October, administrators created YouTube and Facebook accounts for the University. Their role, said web communications director Andy Rainey, will be much more than obligatory…The nature of social media is that it’s all about establishing and cultivating relationships and conversations. And that’s what we want to do.”…Rainey has been cautious of how many and what kind of Facebook messages are sent, wanting to conserve the centralized, one-on-one conversational feel of the sight…We don’t want to appear that we’re spamming people, or make people say, ‘Okay, we get it — you’ve got something to tell us.’”…So far, he said, they have received very positive feedback from alumni who use the site to stay connected, both with University activity and with each other…So far YouTube has been used to add extra content and dimension to other UA publications, such as Research Magazine. “The circulation of some of these publications and Web sites that we put together may be limited to a certain group of people — but that’s really good material,” Rainey said. “With this method, we’re able to show it to potential students, researchers at other institutions and other audiences that might not be predisposed to coming to the University Web site and looking for content.”…
UA students utilize engineering to design a 400-pound canoe
Tuscaloosa News – March 26
The task: Take a 300- to 400-pound piece of concrete and make it float. That’s what civil engineering students from the University of Alabama plan to do when they head to Nashville this weekend to participate in an annual competition in which each group builds their own concrete canoe. About a dozen UA students have been designing and building the 20-foot canoe since the fall…
White collar criminal offers advice to UA students
Crimson White – March 26
The Culverhouse College of Commerce and Business Administration hosted its second annual J. Craig Smith Lecture on Ethics and Social Responsibility with a discussion with Walter Pavlo…a white collar criminal, offered students insight on the issues and pressures facing individuals in high-power positions based on his personal experiences. William Jackson, a business professor, said the basic goal of the lecture series is to expose students to people who have had to make tough ethical decisions in their lives and deal with the consequences…